That the East rhymes with least has been an unfortunate coincidence during the past decade of basketball, in which the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference has struggled to keep up with its more glamorous Western rivals. But as the current season winds down, a look at the standings reveals the tables may have turned ever so slightly.

Make no mistake, the league is still being dominated by two Western Conference titans in the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs, but in the East, the eight teams currently in line for a playoff spot all have winning records, while in the West, there are two teams with records below .500 that are on pace for a postseason berth. So despite having perhaps the game’s three best teams (including the Oklahoma City Thunder), the West no longer has a monopoly on depth among contenders for the postseason.

That there is some variation in the standings of a league in which more than half of the franchises make the playoffs may not seem that exceptional. In the case of the East, though, the past 10 years have included 10 teams with losing records making the playoffs and not one with a winning record being eliminated in the regular season.

With a loss on Saturday night, the Chicago Bulls dropped to 36-36, and they were immediately hounded with questions about whether they were quitting on their playoff push in a difficult season, but if they or the 35-37 Washington Wizards were to finish the season with a winning record and not make the playoffs, they would be the first Eastern Conference team to do so since the 2004-5 Cleveland Cavaliers, who had nothing to show for a 42-40 record in LeBron James’s second season. James had a triple-double in a desperate push for a playoff spot on the final day of the season, but the win was not enough as the Nets also won and took the final spot in the East over the Cavaliers because of a tiebreaker.

But the situation in the West, with just six winning teams, is even more unusual. As it currently stands, the Houston Rockets and the Utah Jazz are backing their way toward playoff spots, with the Dallas Mavericks in the mix as well. That the Rockets and the Jazz are 29 ½ games behind the Warriors — a number that is sure to grow — yet may qualify for postseason play goes a long way toward demonstrating the disparity in competitiveness in the conference. To find another season in which a losing record qualified a team for the Western Conference playoffs, one must go back to 1996-97, when the Los Angeles Clippers (36-46) and the Phoenix Suns (40-42) both qualified.

Depth of quality in a playoff field is no guarantee a conference will produce the eventual champion, but since Michael Jordan’s second (of three) retirements, the West has truly dominated, winning 12 of 17 titles. It is an edge that becomes even more extreme when you realize the Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers have each won as many titles in that time as all Eastern Conference teams combined.

While it is rare for a No. 7 or No. 8 seed to do any sort of damage in the playoffs, regardless of its record — the 1998-99 Knicks, who made it to the N.B.A. finals as the No. 8 seed, are the exception — they have the ability to affect things even if they lose. But in that specific case, it may actually be better to have less depth in your conference. For instance, if the Indiana Pacers or the Detroit Pistons find a way to push the Cavaliers to six or seven games in the first round, while the Warriors and the Spurs breeze through opening rounds against the Rockets or the Jazz, the extra rest could prove vital during the long slog of the playoffs.

But after 10 years of complaints that lottery teams in the West would have been playoff teams in the East, and how the concept of conferences should be eliminated to prevent such things from happening, it will be a welcome change if the West has to take a turn answering for its lack of depth.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D7 of the New York edition with the headline: Eastern Conference Chips Away at West’s Dominance. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe